Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Nazi Victims Ask EU to Probe Vatican on Looted Assets

Holocaust survivors from the former Yugoslavia accused the Vatican of helping Nazi allies launder their stolen valuables and have asked the European Commission to investigate their claims.

“We are requesting the commission open an inquiry into allegations of money laundering of Holocaust victim assets by financial organs associated with or which are agencies of the Vatican City State,”

Jonathan Levy, a Washington-based attorney for the survivors and their heirs, wrote in a letter dated Oct. 20 to Olli Rehn, the European Union’s economic and monetary affairs commissioner. Levy provided the letter to Bloomberg.
The request follows a decade-long lawsuit in U.S. courts on behalf of Holocaust survivors and their heirs from the former Yugoslavia and Ukraine. That case, basing its claims on a U.S. State Department report on the fate of Nazi plunder, alleged that the Vatican Bank laundered assets stolen from thousands of Jews, gypsies and Serbs killed or captured by the Ustasha, the Nazi-backed regime of wartime Croatia. The Vatican repeatedly denied the charges and the findings of the 1998 U.S. report.

Amadeu Altafaj, Rehn’s spokesman, said in Brussels today that the commission had received Levy’s letter and contacted Vatican authorities about it. Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi declined to comment on Levy’s request to the commission.

Vatican Immunity

The U.S. case, which sought as much as $2 billion in restitution, was dismissed last December by a U.S. appeals court in San Francisco on grounds that the Vatican Bank enjoyed immunity under the 1976 Foreign Service Immunities Act, which may prevent foreign governments from facing lawsuits in the U.S.
The commission should have the authority to probe the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR, as the Vatican Bank is called, according to Levy’s letter. It cites a monetary accord signed on Dec. 17 of last year. Under the agreement the Vatican, which uses the euro and issues euro coins, pledged to implement EU laws against money laundering, counterfeiting and fraud.

Rome prosecutors have also sought to show that the Vatican bank is covered under European law. Last month they seized 23 million euros ($32 million) from an Italian account registered to the IOR as they opened a probe into alleged violations of money-laundering laws by the Vatican Bank.

“We looked at all the places where the Vatican may have surrendered sovereignty,” Levy said in a telephone interview. “The only place we could find was with the euro, where they placed themselves under the jurisdiction of either the European Central Bank or the European Commission.”


Swiss Payout

Levy initially contacted the legal office of the Frankfurt- based ECB and was told to take the claim to the commission, he said. An ECB spokeswoman confirmed that after being contacted by Levy, the central bank advised him to go directly to the EU’s executive arm.

The U.S. lawsuit was first filed in 1999, one year after an official Swiss commission concluded that Switzerland received three times more gold taken from Nazi victims than previously estimated by the U.S. government. The same year, UBS AG and Credit Suisse AG, the biggest Swiss banks, agreed to pay $1.25 billion in compensation to Holocaust survivors and their heirs.

In his letter, Levy said “gold and other valuables” stolen in the “genocidal” murder of 500,000 Serbs, Jews and gypsies “were deposited at the Vatican in 1946,” according to “contemporaneous documents authored by Allied investigators” and “the sworn testimony of former U.S. Special Agent William Gowen.” He interviewed and investigated the Ustasha involved in transferring the loot while stationed in Rome after the war.

Euro Coins


Under its agreement with the commission, Vatican City State, a sovereign nation outside the EU, may issue a maximum of 2.3 million euros in coins in 2010 through the Italian mint, not including a further variable amount. The Vatican also pledged to implement EU legislation against money laundering by year-end.
Rehn said the Vatican has submitted its first draft laws “on the prevention of money laundering and the fight against fraud and counterfeiting” and the commission is analyzing them, according to his reply to a question from a member of the European Parliament, posted on its website on Sept. 9.

Lombardi on Oct. 23 declined to say whether the Vatican intends to meet the Dec. 31 deadline for implementing the EU legislation.


Saturday, October 23, 2010

Vatican body asks UN to 'end Israeli occupation'

Vatican body asks UN to 'end Israeli occupation'

In final statement of two-week conference, bishops' synod urges international community to take 'necessary legal steps to put an end to the occupation of the different Arab territories'

Reuters Published: 10.23.10, 14:00 / Israel News
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3973590,00.html


Israel cannot use the Biblical concept of a promised land or a chosen people to justify new "settlements" in Jerusalem or territorial claims, a Vatican synod on the Middle East said on Saturday.

In its concluding message after two weeks of meetings, the synod of bishops from the Middle East also said it hoped a two-state solution for peace between Israel and the Palestinians
could be lifted from dream to reality and called for peaceful conditions that would stop a Christian exodus from the region.

"We have meditated on the situation of the holy city of Jerusalem. We are anxious about the unilateral initiatives that threaten its composition and risk to change its demographic balance," the message said.

US-brokered peace talks have stalled since Israel rejected appeals to extend a temporary moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank that expired last month.

Since the freeze expired, Israel has announced plans to build another 238 homes in two east Jerusalem neighborhoods, drawing the condemnation of Palestinians and world leaders.

In a separate part of the document -- a section on cooperation with Jews -- the synod fathers also took issue with Jews who use the Bible to justify settlements in the West Bank, which Israel captured in 1967.

"Recourse to theological and biblical positions which use the Word of God to wrongly justify injustices is not acceptable," the document said.

Many Jewish settlers and right-wing Israelis claim a biblical birthright to the West Bank, which they call Judea and Samaria and regard as a part of historical, ancient Israel given to the Jews by God.

Asked about the passage at a news conference, Greek-Melchite Archbishop Cyrille Salim Bustros, said:

"We Christians cannot speak about the promised land for the Jewish people. There is no longer a chosen people. All men and women of all countries have become the chosen people.

"The concept of the promised land cannot be used as a base for the justification of the return of Jews to Israel and the displacement of Palestinians," he added. "The justification of Israel's occupation of the land of Palestine cannot be based on sacred scriptures."


The synod's concluding message repeated a Vatican call for Jerusalem to have a special status "which respects its particular character" as a city sacred to the three great monotheistic religions -- Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Jerusalem remains a key issue of dispute. Palestinians want east Jerusalem for capital of a future state. Israel has annexed the area, a move never recognized internationally, and has declared Jerusalem to be its "united and eternal" capital.

Israel did not include east Jerusalem as part of its 10-month building freeze, though most plans there were put on hold in March, when the U.S. protested reports of a new housing project leaked during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden.

East Jerusalem was also captured by Israel in 1967.

While recognizing "the suffering and insecurity in which Israelis live" and the need for Israel to enjoy peace within internationally recognized borders, the document was much more expansive and detailed on the situation of Palestinians.

It said Palestinians "are suffering the consequences of the Israeli occupation: the lack of freedom of movement, the wall of separation and the military checkpoints, the political prisoners, the demolition of homes, the disturbance of socio-economic life and the thousands of refugees."

It urged Christians in the region not to sell their homes and properties. "It is a vital aspect of the lives of those who remain there and for those who one day will return there."

It condemned terrorism "from wherever it may proceed" as well as anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and discrimination against Christians.

SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)
Bishop Accountability Org

MESSIAH IN BOTH TESTAMENTS- FRED JOHN MELDAU-1967 CLASSIC

Friday, October 08, 2010

The guiding principle of Pope Gregory was, “Ignorance is the mother of piety.”

After you read about Pope ("Saint") Gregory the Great you'll understand why Rupert Murdoch was made a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great.

"The guiding principle of Pope Gregory was, “Ignorance is the mother of piety.” According to this principle, Gregory burned the precious Palestine Library founded by Emperor Augustus, destroyed the greater part of the writings of Livy and forbade the study of the classics."

Read Article

My research

Then do your own research!

It’s Official: Southern Poverty Law Center Is Now Part of DHS

dhs(From the Oath Keepers Web site)

As the below document makes clear, Southern Poverty Law Center is Now Officially Part of DHS. The CEO of SPLC now sits on the DHS “Working Group on Countering Violent Extremism” along with the leaders of other So-called Non Government Organizations (but can we really call them such now that they are part of the government?) And select “law enforcement” officers such as the Clark County Nevada Sheriff, Doug Gillespie.  What does the working group do?  Make recommendations on training and how to use all of the local resources – police, social services, media, NGO’s, you name it – to fight “extremism.  So, now no need to file a FOIA request to discover that SPLC is writing the reports naming constitutionalists as possible terrorists.  Now it is in your face and the mask is off.

When you read the below document, keep in mind the current ordeal of the Irish family where their newborn baby was taken based on an affidavit that notes the father’s “association with a militia group known as Oath Keepers.”. Pay attention to who sits on this panel (see pages 26-30), to who DOESN’T, how they plan on reaching DHS tentacles down into every level of society, and how they talk overtly about the need to utilize local SOCIAL WELFARE and MENTAL HEALTH agencies to counter “violent extremism.”. In other words, what is now being done to the Irish family will be done all over.

This is the overt politicization of DHS, to use it against political enemies.

I will post more on this later today.

Stewart Rhodes

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Senate Report: Contractors Funded Afghan Warlords

Five Shocking Findings of the Afghan Contractor Probe

Republican candidate for Senate Ron Johnson Testified To Protect Catholic Church From Sex Abuse Lawsuits

As a member of the finance council for the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay until he resigned to run for Senate this year, Ron Johnson served alongside a bishop named Robert Morneau who, as a Church leader, had been made aware over two decades ago of the abusive tendencies of Rev. John Feeney.

Rev. Feeney was convicted in 2003, before Johnson joined the council, for sexually assaulting two brothers in the late 1970s. But according to documents obtained by the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP), the Church sought to cover up his crimes, which one reverend called "sexually very inappropriate."
Seven years later, Johnson testified before the Wisconsin State Senate against legislation to eliminate the statute of limitations for such crimes, making it easier for victims of sexual abuse to seek damages from the Church or any other culpable institution.

The testimony first arose in the context of the race in a June article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and has been dogging Johnson more or less ever since. His connection to Morneau raises questions about how familiar Johnson (who is not a Catholic) was with the diocese's hidden scandals. Those questions couldn't come at a worse time for the GOP hopeful, who leads Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) in the polls ahead of the November election.
TPM contacted numerous attorneys, advocates, and other members of the finance council of the Diocese of Green Bay to explain the finance council's role at the church, and the information it was privy to with respect to sexually abusive clergy. What we learned suggests that it's very difficult to separate Johnson's role as finance committee member from his role as legislative witness seeking to protect the Church from future lawsuits, when he told the panel, "I urge you to defeat this legislation."

Johnson insisted at the time that he testified as an active member of the business and non-profit community -- not specifically, and most pressingly, as a representative of the Catholic Church. But the road he took to testifying at the Madison statehouse in January of this year belies that contention.
Deacon Tim Reilly, Director of Administration for the Diocese of Green Bay told TPM that the Church played a significant role in getting Johnson to the state capital. According to Reilly, the Church didn't support the legislation and wanted to raise public awareness of its objections. So the diocese arranged for a meeting with Randy Hopper, the state senator in the Oshkosh area who sits on the panel that was deciding whether this legislation would go to the floor for a vote. Some 20 people met at St. Rafael's Parish in Oshkosh, several of whom spoke -- including Johnson. His arguments were among the most articulate and persuasive to the group, so Hopper asked him to go to Madison and testify -- the sort of not-quite-lobbying that happens in Washington and in state capitals around the country all the time.

Reilly reiterated to TPM that Johnson was not speaking specifically on behalf of the church. "He was speaking on his own behalf, as a concerned citizen, that this would adversely affect the Catholic School System and the Boys and Girls Club and the YMCA and other non-profits without government protection."
That beggars belief, according to experts and clergymen.

"He can't be testifying just as a concerned citizen," says Father Tom Doyle, a priest who presciently warned the Catholic Church about the looming sex abuse scandal years ago. "If he was a member of the finance council of the diocese, the senator picked him out not because he was concerned about the Boys and Girls Club.... I don't know of any instance where a layperson, on his own, without any connection with the Church administration has come forward to testify."

Doyle admonished that, though many finance councils around the country are intimately familiar with diocesan secrets (both good and bad), they are in some instances left in the dark by their bishops. He has no direct knowledge of what the finance council knew in Johnson's case.

After learning of Johnson's testimony in news reports a former Johnson supporter named Todd Merryfield -- one of Feeney's victims -- appeared on MSNBC to announce that he'd renounced his support for the Tea Party-backed candidate.

For Merryfield and others who advocate on behalf of abuse victims, legislation extending the statute of limitations in child abuse cases was and remains a key legislative goal, and Johnson's successful attempt to kill it is a nearly unpardonable sin. But in addition to seeking penance from Johnson, and calling on him to press the Church to release information about priest abuse, they want to know what he knew when he testified in January.

"We don't know exactly what he knew," Merryfield told TPM in a phone interview. "It just seemed a little strange that he was in a position of knowledge being on the finance council, having to sign the checks to everyone being paid."

The issue has taken on greater salience as Johnson's lead over Feingold has grown. But for victims, the question of whether Johnson was acting as a dispassionate citizen and member of the business community, or as an agent of the Church, is the most crucial.

"These pedophiles that they have hidden away, they pay their room and board, living costs," Merryfield said, speculating that Johnson "has to know who they are because he has to write the checks to somebody."
According to Peter Isely, SNAP's Midwest Director, "It's something of a mystery what this finance council does," though, he says, it's one of the most important positions in the diocese.

Jim Stang, an attorney for official committees of abuse survivors in six Catholic affiliated bankruptcy cases, told TPM that these finance committees -- mandated at every diocese in the country -- are well-positioned to know about the skeletons in the Church's closets. When a case is settled, for instance, it would be in the financial interest of the Church, and therefore the council, to know of any other potential victims, and therefore lawsuits.

"It would certainly be in the area of finance committee's appropriate inquiry to ask," Stang said.
Ultimately, though, Stang said it should come as no surprise that Johnson's testimony so closely mirrored the Church's position.

"I think you'd have to live in some kind of plastic bubble to not make the association between statute of limitations reform and the financial impact on the diocese," Stang said. "It's certainly the argument the Church has been making for years."
According to the 2004 John Jay Report, commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Diocese of Green Bay received 59 allegations of sexual abuse by 35 diocesan priests during the 52 year period of the inquiry, 1950-2002.

Furthermore, the diocese is currently involved in two lawsuits, which, according to Reilly, is just the sort of potential liability the Church would bring to the attention of the council. "I also would say we have two lawsuits going on and depending on how they're settled, depending on whether the judge rules in our favor and how the jury rules, this is the potential financial risk that might be out there in the future," Reilly said. "In the case of the two litigations that we're involved in right now, I feel very strongly that we are on the correct side of the truth, but I said to the council, I need to make everybody aware that there are two lawsuits coming on so it's not a surprise. Nobody likes surprises."

In the past several days, Johnson has claimed in statements to reporters in Wisconsin that he never argued the legislation should fail -- only that he cautioned against some of its provisions. "I sought to warn legislators of those consequences in order to correct legislative language so that any bills that passed would punish the perpetrators," he insisted. In fact he urged state senators to vote down the legislation, claiming that, among other things, it would benefit trial attorneys and do more harm than good to children left in the lurch when organizations get sued and go under.

Now, under attack, he is demanding full transparency from the Diocese of Green Bay.
"I call upon the Green Bay Diocese to provide the utmost transparency in order to answer any lingering questions or doubt among victims of child abuse and those who seek to prevent child abuse in the future," Johnson said.

The Johnson campaign did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

Article Source

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Jesse Ventura was never a USN Seal?

Source: http://www.youtube.com/user/jesseVenturanotaSeaI

Website: http://cursor.org/venturawatch/dangerous_game.htm

From September 11, 1969 to September 10, 1975 Jesse Ventura served in the USN attached to UDT 12, an underwater demolition team. UDT 12 existed at the same time the SEALS existed. The UDTs were later broken up and some of the frogmen as they were called got additional training and became SEALS, some became SDVT and others became NDU and Navy Salvage Divers; but that was in 1983, 8 and a half years after Jesse Ventura, (then Jim Janos) left the US Navy.

Because he CONSTANTLY claims to be a SEAL, a real SEAL Commander Bill Salisbury, a 16 year SEAL team veteran and San Diego attorney wrote an article for the San Diego Reader that basically called him a liar and a phony. Here's the original article:

http://tinyurl.com/yczf3cu

This got reporters asking questions that Ventura tried to brush off or stonewall, finally, on a Minnesota public radio interview on December 14, 1999 Governor Venturas spokesman confirmed that Ventura was never a member of the Navy SEALs and his stated that the "Governor has never tried to convince people otherwise".

http://tinyurl.com/3y49upa

But that didn't stop Jesse. Oh no. After going on and on about how he had "hunted men" in Vietnam when he was a SEAL a TV station got a hold of a copy of his dd-214 discharge papers and noticed that he didn't have a combat action ribbon which was awarded to "those involved in a firefight or who went on clandestine or special operations where the risk of enemy fire was great or expected". The transcript is here:

http://tinyurl.com/yaebr2q

FINALLY, in January 2002, Ventura ADMITTED to the Pioneer Press and the Minnesota Star Tribune that he did not see combat:

http://tinyurl.com/ydmwbjp

Now he is back to ranting about his non existent SEAL service like nothing ever happened. Why is this important? Because during the time Jesse Ventura was in UDT 12 SEAL team one lost 34 men to combat in Vietnam. UDT 12 lost 1 man to a training accident in the Philippines.

http://tinyurl.com/y9to2m4

Riggs Bank News

Law firm vice president sells Burleith 2BD
Blockshopper
Prior to that, he was the trust officer at Riggs Bank, NA He graduated from United States Military Academy in West Point. He earned his master's degree in ...

Blockshopper

Blogs
Anti-financial crimes business network - US Patent 7805369 Description
For example, AmSouth Bank was fined $50 million for failure to file SARs as required by laws; Riggs Bank was fined $25 million for failure to file SARs; UBS was fined $100 million for failure to comply with the requirements set by the ...
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Facts about Equatorial Guinea | Africannewslive
By Newslive
A 2004 US Senate investigation into the Washington-based Riggs Bank found that President Obiang's family had received huge payments from US oil companies such as Exxon Mobil and Amerada Hess. Observers say the US finds it hard to ...
Africannewslive - http://africannewslive.com/

Geoffrey Robertson vs Pope Benedict XVI

Geoffrey Robertson would like to see Pope Benedict XVI be made accountable for years of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.
The Australian-born QC's new book, The Case of the Pope, says the Pope is morally responsible for a crime against humanity.

click to listen to audio

"What we're dealing with is tens of thousands of rapes of children. When you investigate the particular areas in Ireland three judicial reports have said endemic in Catholic intuitions - wide spread and systematic.

"That happens to be the definition of a crime against humanity."

He believes the Vatican have caused the widespread nature of the abuse.

"They were moving paedophile priests from one country to another and covering up paedophilia in the church by a medieval process of canon law, where bishops don't hand over priests to the police to prosecute. They deal with them in private, where the punishment is to go and do penance."

Mr Robertson wants to see the system of canon law changed.

The QC refutes the claims from various publications and commentators that the numbers of priests sexually abusing children have been sensationalised.

"The Church itself accepts up to five per cent which is twenty thousand. A paedophile priest throughout their life will molest dozens of children. An Austrian Cardinal is said to have molested thousands of children in a sixty year life."

While Mr Robertson doesn't blame the Pope for any actual abuse personally.

"All I'm saying is that the Vatican should comply with the convention of the Rights of the Child, which every country except America has ratified.

"The Vatican must adopt a zero tolerance attitude towards the abuse of a child and a mandatory reporting policy, handing over evidence of abuse to police and a protection for whistle blowers."
He thinks the Pope will make these changes.

"He's come along way. In Easter he was passing this off as petty gossip. Last week in England he apologised for what he called 'the unspeakable crimes of my clergy'.

"I'm pushing at an open door."

article link: http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2010/10/05/3030034.htm

Thursday, September 23, 2010

'If you tell, you go to hell'

"As Pope Benedict continues his visit to Britain, Channel 4 News north of England Nick Martin meets three clerical sex abuse victims who tell him their harrowing stories." Read More

**Update** It seems that channel 4 News decided to take down this story. I wonder why.........

Here's another link to the story.


But if you click it you'll see that the story has been removed. The video was very important and damaging to the Vatican. That is why it was removed.

Here's the text of the article at least:

"As Pope Benedict continues his visit to Britain, Channel 4 News north of England Nick Martin meets three clerical sex abuse victims who tell him their harrowing stories. Therese Albrecht looks me straight in the eyes and says: “I planned the whole thing; I was going to buy a gun, go see the priest who abused me, shoot him in the head and then kill myself – that’s how bad it got.”
She did not, because she feared she would go to hell for killing the priest.
Ms Albrecht is a straight talker. A former New York cop, she was abused at the age of eight by her parish priest.



”The priest who abused me controlled me through fear,” she said. ”There was a rhyme: ‘If you tell, you go to hell.’ It worked. I didn’t tell. Not for a long time.” Life’s work to protect children I am spending two days with three women who have made it their life’s work to prod and pester the Vatican. They want the Pope to do more to protect children who come into contact with priests intent on abusing them. 

And they are not satisfied with the Pope’s expressions of regret on the first day of a four-day state visit to the UK. “We have heard the apologies, now we want action,” said Barbara Blaine, the president and founder of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). 

”I was abused by my priest from the age of 13. My family looked up to him, the whole community looked up to him. It was horrendous, embarrassing but I was just a child and I didn’t understand what was happening,” she said. The pair have travelled from the US to be in Edinburgh for the papal visit. With them is Barbara Dorris, a retired gym teacher who was raped at the age of six by her parish priest.

“The priest told my mother to put me in my best dress and send me to church to help out,” she said.

”My mother was so proud that I had been chosen. I was a special chosen one. She didn’t know that he was raping me.”

SNAP says the way the Catholic church is dealing with emerging cases of child abuse at the hands of priests is inadequate and it is looking to the Pope for action. 



The Catholic church says there has been radical changes to the way they deal with this issue and that priests found guilty of abusing children should never have access to youngsters again. But SNAP wants to see a register formed so that priests who they say have been “credibly accused” of child abuse could be named and shamed so that parents can protect their children."

Official PRIEST Trailer - In Theaters 5/13/2011

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Father Marcial Maciel, was my dad, and he sexually abused me, Raul Gonzalez claims in lawsuit

Tuesday, June 22nd 2010, 8:52 AM
Pope John Paul II is seen giving his blessing to Father Marcial Maciel in 2004. Maciel has been accused of sexually abusing children, including his own, in a lawsuit. He died in 2008.
Lepri/AP
Pope John Paul II is seen giving his blessing to Father Marcial Maciel in 2004. Maciel has been accused of sexually abusing children, including his own, in a lawsuit. He died in 2008.
Raul Gonzalez
Mone/AP
Raul Gonzalez
 
He was a celebrated priest, praised by Pope John Paul II.

But Father Marcial Maciel had secrets, which included illegitimate children and sexual abuse, according to a lawsuit filed in Connecticut on Monday.

Raul Gonzalez claims the Vatican protected the man he knew as his father for decades, chiefly because of his efforts with the highly profitable Legion of Christ.

"My dad told my mom that he was a CIA agent," Gonzalez told ABC News' "Nightline." "He always told my mom that he was a really busy man. That he was always flying on his trips because of the business of his company."

It wasn't until he saw Maciel on the cover of a magazine, dressed in priest garb, that he learned the truth.
In the lawsuit, Gonzalez claims he, and other children, were sexually abused by Father Maciel during his time as director of the Legionaries of Christ, a congregation he founded in 1941.

"He is one of the many, many kids, and others abused and deceived by Maciel," says Jeffrey Anderson, Gonzalez's lawyer.

Gonzalez alleges the abuse began when he was 7 years old during a trip to Colombia. He told "Nightline" that his half-brother, Omar, also was abused.

"He told me that his uncle sometimes made him masturbate him and, basically, the idea of my dad was to transmit that idea to me," said Gonzalez, according to ABC News.

Gonzalez described many different kinds of abuse he claims Maciel committed.

"He always told us we had to kiss him because that was how we would learn how to kiss a girl when we grew up," he said.

In the lawsuit, he alleges Father Maciel was protected by the church -- including Pope Paul II -- because of his efforts in raising money, as well as providing gifts and benefits to Vatican officials.

"My dad told my mom that when John Paul II dies, he was going to be in trouble," Gonzalez said.
After the death of Pope Paul II, Maciel was stripped of his authority and the Legion of Christ was taken over by the Vatican. Father Maciel was still a priest when he died in 2008.

The Vatican and the Legion of Christ did not comment on the ABC News report. Gonzalez says he has met with officials several times regarding a settlement, and has demanded $26 million.

msheridan@nydailynews.com; or follow him at Twitter.com/NYDNSheridan


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/06/22/2010-06-22_father_marcial_maciel_my_dad_sexually_abused_me_raul_gonzalez_claims_in_lawsuit.html#ixzz0rcwg0Nr2

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Pope made Hitlers vice-chancellor Knight of Malta


Pope made Hitlers vice-chancellor Knight of Malta

Franz von Papen brought Hitler to power in 1933. In 1959 Von Papen was made a «Knight of Malta» and awarded the Grand Cross by the Pope in Rome.
Franz Von Papen, next to a US Military police, as a prisoner of war in 1945
Franz von Papen as a prisoner of war in 1945, next to an American military police
Nazi-Germany would not have been the same without Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen zu Köningen. He was the head of the Catholic Centre Party, that merged with the Nazi party after Hitler came to power in Germany.
In 1932 Von Papen was made Chancellor of Germany. And when Nazi-leader Adolf Hitler took over as the leader of Germany in 1933, Hitler made Von Papen the Vice-Chancellor.
Franz von Papen.
On 8 April 1933, Von Papen travelled to the Vatican to offer a «Reichskonkordat» that defined the German state’s relationship with the Roman Catholic Church. Von Papen secured the Vatican religious freedom in Nazi-Germany.
Papen and his allies were quickly marginalized by Hitler and he left the government after the Night of the Long Knives on 2 July 1934. Some of Von Papens confidants were then purged by the Nazis.
Von Papen was sent to Wiena as German ambassador. Even though he was dismissed from his mission in Austria on 4 February 1938, a month before the Anschluss. But Papen was not removed because He has deserted Hitler.
From 1939 to 1944 Von Papen served the Nazi-government as Ambassador to Turkey.
In August 1944, Papen had his last meeting with Hitler after arriving back in Germany from Turkey. Here, Hitler awarded Papen the Knight’s Cross of the Military Merit Order.
Papen was one of the defendants at the main Nuremberg War Crimes Trial. The court acquitted him, stating that he had, in the court’s view, committed a number of “political immoralities,” but that these actions were not punishable under the “conspiracy to commit crimes against peace” charged in Papen’s indictment.
Franz von Papen as a Nazi
Von Papen was later sentenced to eight years in prison by a West German denazification court, but was released on appeal in 1949.
Franz Von Papen was made a Papal Chamberlain by Pope Pius XI. But when this pope died in 1939, war time Pope Pius XII did not renew his honorary title.
But Pope John XXIII restored Von Papen`s title of Papal Chamberlain on 24 July 1959. Papen was also made a «Knight of Malta», and was awarded the Grand Cross of the Pontifical Order of Pius IX.
Why did the Roman Catholic Church honor Hitlers vice-chancellor, who had been rewarded by Hitler in 1944, at the hight of the Holocaust?
One answer has to be found in the merits of Franz Von Papen before World War II.
Papen was expelled from the United States during World War I for complicity in the planning of sabotage such as blowing up U.S. railroad lines. On 28 December 1915, he was declared persona non grata by the U.S. after his exposure and recalled to Germany.
Franz von Papen was awarded the grand cross by the Pope in 1959.
In April 1916, a United States federal grand jury issued an indictment against Papen for a plot to blow up Canada’s Welland Canal, which connects Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. But Papen was then safely on German soil. He remained under indictment until he became Chancellor of Germany in 1932, at which time the charges were dropped.
Later in World War I, Papen served as an officer first on the Western Front. From 1917 he as an officer on the General Staff in the Middle East and a major in the Ottoman army in Palestine.
Than, who was Franz Von Papen?
Like Tony Blair, He was a committed «papist». He was linked to the Papal effort to make The United State of America one of the Papal states under the Vatican seat of power.
He even served as a officer in the Ottoman Army in «Palestine», who tried its best to avoid Jerusalem being liberated by British forces. There were worse things that could happen to Jerusalem, than being under Muslim control. The Catholic faithful wanted to avoid a Protestant Christian take-over, followed by a Jewish home coming.
Today a former nominal protestant turned faithful papal soldier is trying to complete the task given to Franz von Papen. His name is Tony Blair. The former Prime Minister of Anglican United Kingdom has been given the Papal task to end the Zionist control over the «Holy city».
Franz Von Papen was not only a Nazi-collaborator. He had always been a faithful papist and a freemason. Thats why the Pope of Rome restored him in 1959.
20. Juli 1933. Franz von Papen signs the deal between Nazi-Germany and the Vatican
Franz von Papen with Hitler and Josef Goebbels.
After World War II, Franz von Papen was made a papal knight by the Pope
Freemasons on the march, the order of the Knights of Malta with Franz von Papen.
Papal soldier Franz von Papen with his Vatican order after World War II
After the war, Franz von Papen on the back of a horse. A free man, honored by the Roman Catholic Pope of Rome.
Read more about the Knights of Malta: Click here

Hitchens: Kagan Should be Grilled Over Recent Vatican Brief


hitchensLast week, we wrote an article for the WSJ on the U.S. government’s decision to side with the Vatican in a high-profile case involving alleged sexual abuse against a former priest. Click here for the story; here for the LB post on the story.
The solicitor general’s office urged the Supreme Court to set aside a federal appellate court ruling in a case that had allowed the Oregon suit to go forward against the Vatican. Specifically, the SG’s office argued in its brief that the Ninth Circuit misapplied the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, a 1976 federal law governing when U.S. courts can hear cases against other countries.
Writing for Slate, noted author — and no friend to organized religion — Christopher Hitchens recently weighed in on the brief which, Hitchens notes, came out of Elena Kagan’s office, though it wasn’t signed by her specifically. (Neal Katyal, the Acting SG, was the top name on the brief.)
Hitchens, not surprisingly, isn’t a fan of the Obama administration’s position in the case, and thinks that those “scrutinizing the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court might want to pay some attention to the decision of her office,” a decision Hitchens characterizes as taking “the side of the Vatican in the continuing scandal of child rape and the associated scandal of a coordinated obstruction of justice.”
Continues Hitchens, on the decision to invoke the Vatican’s sovereignty as a justification for judicial immunity:
There are a number of fascinating ramifications of this opinion. It is not usually considered polite to mention that the majority of Supreme Court justices are practicing Roman Catholics. . . . We will soon have a Supreme Court that contains no Protestants and no secularists and which is being asked to rule on a matter central to the religious beliefs of a majority of its members, who are bound to regard the man formerly known as Joseph Ratzinger as the vicar of Christ on earth. If they now take refuge in the lesser claim that he is the bureaucratic head of a foreign government, will that serve to assuage their consciences?
Hitchens’ piece ends with this flourish:
It will be a disgrace if the Supreme Court overrules the sane and legal finding of the 9th Circuit. . . . [A]t last the majesty of American law is being deployed in this matter—but on the side of an institution that has irreparably stained itself with crime. Kagan and her colleagues should be made to feel the shame of this, as should the president, who talks so glibly about human rights and equality before the law.
The Vatican, through its lawyer, Jeffrey Lena, has argued that the Vatican doesn’t employ priests or exercise the requisite control over them to justify the U.S. courts exercising jurisdiction over the Vatican, let alone establishing liability. In regard to the Oregon case, Lena noted that the plaintiff has not provided evidence that the Vatican moved the priest in question around, or had control over the priest.
Specifically, the solicitor general’s office argued in its brief that the Ninth Circuit misapplied the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, a 1976 federal law governing when U.S. courts can hear cases against other countries.
LBers, any thoughts?

Vatican Bank Under Scrutiny

Vatican bank under scrutiny VATICAN CITY - ITALIAN prosecutors are investigating the Vatican bank on suspicion of involvement in money laundering, La Repubblica daily reported on Tuesday.

The newspaper said the Institute of Religious Works (IOR) and 10 Italian banks, including major institutions such as Intesa San Saolo and Unicredit, were the target of the investigation.

'The hypothesis of the investigators is that subjects with their fiscal residence in Italy are using the IOR as a 'screen' to hide different dealings, such as fraud or tax evasion,' the paper said.

The IOR manages bank accounts for religious orders and Catholic associations and benefits from Vatican offshore status.

Investigators have uncovered transactions of around 180 million euros (S$310 million) over a two-year period in one of the accounts held at the IOR.

In September 2009 the IOR nominated a new chief executive, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, Spanish banking giant Santander's representative in Italy. US archbishop Paul Marcinkus headed up the bank in 1971-1989 during which time it was caught up in scandals including the collapse of the private Italian bank, Banco Ambrosiano in 1982 amid accusations of links to the mafia and political terrorism. -- AFP

Sunday, May 30, 2010

'Jesuits' written on threat to S.C. Attorney General - and Governor Candidate, Henry McMaster

'Jesuits' written on threat
SLED agents guarding McMaster full time



By Bo Petersen

The Post and Courier

Saturday, May 29, 2010
11 Comment(s)
From the teller window, the midday drop-box deposit looked mundane. The mysterious reference to "Jesuits" on the note wasn't. Neither was the death threat against Henry McMaster, the state's attorney general and a candidate for governor.

The note has State Law Enforcement Division agents guarding McMaster around the clock and asking the public for help to identify the person who dropped the note.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro in the Ivory Coast







"The basilica was constructed between 1985 and 1989 at a cost of $300 million." (Click thumb nails to view full size)





"The basilica was met with some controversy globally when construction began. The lavishly built basilica sits in the middle of the African bush in an impoverished city where only a minority of homes have running water and adequate sanitation. The cost of the basilica doubled the national debt of Côte d'Ivoire, but many of the country's Roman Catholics are proud of the church." Source







Link to the Unhived Mind: Vatican moving to Africa ?

Holy Water

"Holy Water" used to be vended through coin operated machines..

http://www.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient_inventions/hsc18b.htm

"The simple person-machine exchange of goods has been functioning fine for millennia, it turns out, since the very first vending machine was invented in 215 B.C. by the mathematician Hero of Alexandria, who came up with a coin-operated gadget to dispense holy water. The first vending machine hit the United States in the late 19th century; it sold Tutti-Frutti gum on New York mass transit." source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/03/AR2010020303498.html

(Now the CC just put the "donate" box right near the holy water instead of flat out charging for it. -Thomas)
References:

Krug, Bryon: Vending Business-in-a-Box, BooksOnStuff, 2003.

^ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ancient_calendar.html Old World, High Tech: World's First Vending Machine (scroll down to see the item)

^ "History of the Vending Machine" page of Gumballs.com.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

U.K. Commons Passes Sex-Ed Bill Forcing Schools to Promote Homosexuality, Abortion- Head of Catholic bishops’conference and the Catholic Education Service thanked for supporting bill

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/feb/10022403.html


By Hilary White

LONDON, February 24, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The House of Commons voted 68 to 177 last night to pass third reading of the government’s sex-education bill in a vote that pro-life and pro-family advocates have called “deplorable.”

Under the bill, schools, both religious and secular, will be required to give children information on homosexual relationships as well as artificial contraception and abortion. The government has confirmed that these programs will specifically include information for children on how to obtain abortions and contraceptives.

Under current rules, parents have the right to withdraw their child from sex and relationship education (SRE) classes up until the age of 19. But the bill will lower that to 15, ensuring that students receive at least one year of sex-education. The BBC notes that currently, only 0.04 per cent of parents use the opt-out.

The bill now goes to the House of Lords.

While the bill has been called “controversial,” the controversy in the media has focused on a promise made by the government, with an amendment, that religious schools could teach the new sex-ed curriculum according to their religious “ethos.”

After an outcry by the homosexualist lobby and secular humanist organizations, the bill’s principle supporters, the government quickly backpedalled, assuring the public that the amendment was not an opt-out for faith schools.

This week, while his department issued a public statement to confirm, Children’s Minister Ed Balls told media that the amendment will not change the requirement of Catholic and Anglican schools to promote abortion, contraception, “civil partnerships” and homosexuality as “normal and harmless.”

Even with the amendment, Balls told the BBC, religious schools “must explain civil partnership. They must give a balanced view on abortion, they must give both sides of the argument, they must explain how to access an abortion, the same is true on contraception as well.”

The BBC reports that with 1/3 of Britain’s schools being faith schools, the government is aware that the support and cooperation of both the Church of England and the Catholic Church is crucial to the success of the programs.

This support has been assured by the Catholic Education Service (CES), which helped draft the bill and has defended it against criticisms from parent groups and pro-family advocates. CES claimed credit for the tabling of the faith schools amendment that pro-life and family groups have called “worthless” and Ed Balls himself said would change nothing.

On a BBC radio program Balls specifically thanked Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, the head of the Catholic bishops’ conference of England and Wales, and the Catholic Education Service for their support of his bill.

“To have the support of the Catholic Church and Archbishop Nichols in these changes is, I think, very, very important, is a huge step forward.”

Paul Tully, general secretary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn children, which has lobbied heavily against the bill, said last night, “This is a dire result for school-children and for unborn children who are in the firing-line of this bill.”

Tully said that Balls had made it clear that the government’s intention was to force all schools, regardless of religious “ethos,” to teach children how to use and where to obtain birth control and abortions.

“These are the key ‘advertising’ messages that the pro-abortion lobby is fighting to have promoted throughout the education system – where children can be influenced and corrupted without parental guidance or protection.”

SPUC has been heavily critical of the involvement of CES, saying that the bishops’ education group has been complicit in creating anti-life and anti-Catholic legislation, that will usher in a new “totalitarianism,” suppressing religious freedoms.

Greg Hurst, writing in the opinion pages of the Times, added that the sex-education bill was all about boosting Labour’s reputation in time for the upcoming general elections, in which Gordon Brown’s Labour party is widely expected to lose. The point of such legislation, Hurst wrote today, is to continue the already massive socialist re-adjustment of Britain.

“Labour politicians want to entrench a change in social attitudes regardless of who wins. Leaving behind a more liberal Britain would be part of Labour’s legacy of achievements. If there were to be a change of government, their successors would have to live with such changes or risk looking reactionary by unpicking them one by one.”

A media release from the Department of Children Schools and Families (DCF) described the kind of cooperation that is expected from Britain’s faith schools, citing a Catholic school in Bedford as a good example.

St. Thomas More school, the DCF said, has developed a “successful balance” between the “faith ethos” and the sex education curriculum. The school teaches that restricting sex to marriage is “the ideal” but it “explicitly recognises the reality that some young people may choose to be sexually active” and will need contraception and abortion.

“The school nurse provides students with clear accurate information” on contraception and “details of local services.” These include “pregnancy options” that include abortion, which is “discussed in a non-judgemental way.”

Paul Tully remarked, “Many people will be especially appalled that both the National Society of the Church of England and the education service of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference have endorsed the provisions of the bill. Mr. Balls made much of the support for the bill by Archbishop Nichols, and we have called upon the Archbishop, and other faith leaders to reconsider their support even at this late stage.”


To contact the Department of Catholic Education and Formation
Catholic Bishops' Conference of England & Wales:
39 Eccleston Square
LONDON SW1V 1BX
Tel: 020 7901 4829
Fax: 020 7901 4821
Email: grace.applewaithe@cbcew.org.uk

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Come clean on Pius XII

(From the Jerusalem Post)

"Pope Benedict XVI’s intention to elevate his World War II-era predecessor, Pope Pius XII, to sainthood has inexorably revived the polemic about whether Pius turned a blind eye to the Holocaust. In a transparent effort to calm the controversy it itself has recharged, the Vatican announced last week that it will soon make some of its WWII archives available on the Internet. The Holy See’s semi-official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, claimed this will “render service to the historic truth.”

But will it? Odds are that this will be a hi-tech rerun of what occurred in 1999. To counter British author John Cornwell’s book Hitler’s Pope, the Vatican appointed a panel – the International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission – to go over material kept zealously concealed from public scrutiny. Yet even this handpicked and specifically approved panel was denied full access. Only pre-1923 papers were made available. In reaction, the commission suspended its work in 2001, after producing no findings on the papacy during the Holocaust.

This time, too, it is already being indicated that of the 8,000 pages to be uploaded, none will directly relate to the wartime pope and that only in another five to six years will anything pertaining to Pius see light. Such promises for future lifting of secrecy have been made periodically over the years, and each time the target date is further postponed.

This automatically revives abiding questions about the ongoing concealment. It’s almost 65 years since WWII ended. One would reasonably assume that any remote pretext for refusing full disclosure has long since evaporated. The very fact that such records are still being kept under wraps, indeed, only intensifies suspicion that they are damning. Otherwise, surely, the Vatican would wish to eliminate suspicion rather than amplify it.

Pius is accused both by Jews and non-Jews of having betrayed the Jews during their darkest hours. Had he so much as cautioned devout Catholics throughout Europe that annihilating Jews is sinful, it is argued, more might have been rescued.



CORNWELL, A committed Catholic and one-time candidate for the priesthood, aimed to prove Pius’s innocence. He was therefore allowed to peruse parts of the secret Vatican archives. Following exhaustive research, Cornwell recounted, “by the middle of 1997 I was in a state of moral shock. The material I had gathered amounted not to an exoneration but to an indictment... The evidence was explosive.”

Cornwell said it showed Pius “was patently, and by the proof of his own words, anti-Jewish. It revealed that he had helped Hitler to power and at the same time undermined potential Catholic resistance in Germany. It showed that he had implicitly denied and trivialized the Holocaust, despite having reliable knowledge of its true extent. And, worse, that he was a hypocrite, for after the war he had retrospectively taken undue credit for speaking out boldly against the Nazi persecution of the Jews.”

Indeed, postwar – obviously free of Fascist and Third Reich intimidation – Vatican City and extraterritorial buildings in Rome became protective semi-official asylums for numerous wanted war-criminals. The exodus to Arab destinations and the Americas of Nazis and their collaborators would have been impossible were the highest Vatican echelons genuinely faultless or clueless.



ALL OF this underscores our misgivings about the Vatican’s routine but never-kept pledges to reveal pertinent documents at later dates.

Is the object merely to deflect criticism and win time? Is the Vatican’s latest move geared to relieve pressure as it proceeds to beatify Pius XII?

Posting on the Internet documents that do not relate to the main issue of contention appears aimed at creating a false impression of cooperation and openness.

We can only hope the pontiff pays attention to 18 top Catholic scholars from America, Germany and Australia, who in a heartfelt letter last week urged him to delay canonizing Pius XII because, with Vatican archives under lock and key, “currently, existing research leads us to the view that Pope Pius XII did not issue a clearly worded statement, unconditionally condemning the wholesale slaughter and murder of European Jews.”

This is the crux of the matter. All the rest is smoke and mirrors."

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Irish victims slam talks in Vatican 'Insulting to survivors' of child abuse, critic says

ReutersFebruary 18, 2010

Irish victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy yesterday condemned the outcome of a two-day Vatican meeting on a series of scandals that have rocked the mainly Catholic country.

Pope Benedict XVI urged 24 of Ireland's bishops to restore the church's "spiritual and moral credibility" at the end of the meeting on Tuesday.

The pope called child abuse a "heinous crime" and a "grave sin" and the meeting recognized that the "grave crisis" had led to a breakdown in trust in the church's leadership.

But Fiona Neary, executive director of Ireland's Rape Crisis Network, expressed "deep disappointment" at the tone of the meeting, describing it as an "opportunity wasted."

"It is shocking to the rape crisis sector that the systemic failures of the institutions of the Catholic faith are not mentioned as being a significant contributory factor in the sexual abuse of minors," she said.

"It is clear that the most senior levels of Catholic institutions remain unable to take responsibility for their collusion with the abuse of children in Ireland."

Maeve Lewis, executive director of the One in Four group, said expectations for the meeting had been high but little progress appeared to have been made.

"The Vatican has accepted no responsibility for its role in facilitating the sexual abuse of children, referring only to the Irish church, and only vague declarations of intent for the future are included.

"It is deeply insulting to survivors to suggest that they were abused due to failures of faith, rather than because sex offending priests were moved from parish to parish, and those in authority looked away while further children were sexually abused," Lewis said.

Leading anti-abuse campaigner Andrew Madden said the meeting had offered "nothing intelligent, nothing coherent, nothing new."

He said submissions from victims' groups had been ignored by the Vatican and he would ask Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin why he had come back from Rome "empty-handed."


Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Irish+victims+slam+talks+Vatican/2578780/story.html#ixzz0fvnAgbuz

More Smokescreens and Whitewash in regards to "Hitler's Pope" during WW2

"Series from Vatican secret archives on Pius XII going digital"

New York City, N.Y., Feb 17, 2010 / 03:03 am (CNA).- In cooperation with the Vatican, the Pave the Way Foundation will soon publish online twelve volumes of World War II documents from the Holy See during the time of Pope Pius XII. The documents have been “almost completely ignored” until now, the organization's founder told CNA.

The Pave the Way Foundation is a non-profit group founded by Gary Krupp, which seeks to promote inter-religious dialogue and reduce religious conflict. A major focus of the organization is to vindicate Pope Pius XII from false accusations surrounding his papacy. Many have claimed that the late pontiff did nothing to assist European Jews during the Holocaust.

article continues below

(The person Gary Krupp is a Knight of the EQUESTRIAN ORDER of Saint Gregory the Great and a traitor to the truth and the world, and especially a traitor to the Jewish people. Here is the TRUTH regarding the Papacy during WW2)



Article Continues...

Speaking on the significance of the documents, Krupp, who is Jewish, explained to CNA how the accusations against Pope Pius XII surfaced. In 1963 a play called “The Deputy” by Rolf Hochhuth debuted in Europe which denounced Pope Pius XII and claimed that he failed to take any action in speaking out against the Holocaust.

Although “everybody condemned” the play at the time, including Israeli and Jewish leaders around the world, it nevertheless “caught on and started changing the entire impression of Pope Pius XII,” said Krupp.


Krupp continued to say that “in an effort to correct some of this misinformation, Pope Paul VI ordered three Jesuits to study, to go into the papacy of Pius XII, into those archives, and to pull out every significant document they could find.” Krupp said that the Jesuits described the documents, copied them and eventually published them in a series of twelve books.


“The twelve books, called the 'Acts of the Holy See during the Second World War' were published in 1981 and have been almost completely ignored internationally,” noted Krupp. “In fact, there were only a few hundred that were ever printed.”

“By digitizing the entire collection,” he explained, “we are enabling it to be spread all over the world so people all over the world can look at it and come to their own conclusions.”

A recent article from the Agence France Presse (AFP), claimed that although the volumes contain information relevant to WWII, they are “unrelated” to Pope Pius XII.

When asked about this, Krupp responded, “this type of thinking comes from people who have no idea how the Vatican works. It's as simple as that.”

Krupp explained that as an example of this, one could look and see how few documents are actually signed by Pope Benedict XVI but are rather endorsed by various Vatican officials. In other words, he said, just because Pius XII's name may not be signed on a document, does not by any means indicate he had no relation to it.

Krupp told CNA that the volumes will be posted on his website as well as the Vatican's within the next few weeks.

=======================================================

According to Pave the Way Foundation’s brochure, “Being a trusted member of the Papal household has enabled him [Krupp] to act as a catalyst in initiating changes and eliminating many obstacles to the furtherance of Judeo-Christian relations. Gary has also been invested, by permission of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, as an Officer Brother in the Anglican Order of St. John.”

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him

Proverbs 16:7

The Scripture of the day..

This verse has always stood out as very profound to me. Have you ever clearly seen this come to pass in your life? I just have and it was amazing.

This verse came to mind today as I was thinking about an ex member of Alamo Ministries who I kind of think of as a second mother now. Someone who I definitely considered my enemy before hand

It's obvious to me that it pleased the Lord for me to utterly forsake Alamo Ministries. For many reasons.

To the remaining Alamo Ministry members: What enemies are you at peace with? Or what "enemies" are at peace with you?

Alamo compared himself to Christ when Alamo was arrested. Alamo stated, "I'm just another prophet who was arrested for preaching the Gospel". He also at other times made reference to him being arrested 'like Jesus was arrested'.

But contrary to Alamo's claims, all the testimonies against Alamo DID line up one with another. But in regards to Jesus, the Bible states: "For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together. " Mark 14:56

Even Alamo's own defense Attorney stated, "This is a brutal case and testimony...." LINK "...We're going to have to focus on the intent of the cross-country trips and let the jury decide." In other words. He was hoping to get out of the obvious crime that happened with a technicality. The "brutal testimony" was the testimony of Alamo's accusers who's witness DID agree together.

This was simply not the case with JESUS.

"And Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, Said unto them, Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that perverteth the people: and, behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him:" Luke 23:13

So really, how can Alamo even compare himself with Jesus the way he did?

Not that Tony Alamo is in trouble for polygamy. But Tony Alamo stated that the Bible doesn't forbid polygamy. But the Bible doesn't command polygamy either. In a land where it's against the law do you think your enemies would be at peace with you if you ignored their laws? Obviously in this case (at least), Tony's ways haven't pleased the Lord. In this case it would have pleased the Lord for Tony to have ONE wife. This way Tony's enemies would have been at peace with him. When Tony forsook the law and married multiple women that did NOT please the Lord. And the people weren't angry at Tony because Tony was "preaching the Gospel" like Tony continuously states. Being a polygamist doesn't save your soul. But believing the Gospel WILL save your soul. But Alamo then states, "well Jesus IS the whole Bible and Jesus, the Bible doesn't forbid polygamy and even promotes the marriage of very young women.." (paraphrasing) but then Tony now states additional books are ALSO the Bible, including the "book of Jasher". So this is where everything gets even more complicated. It is no longer the simplistic gospel.

Paul stated, "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." 2 Cor 11:3

"Simplicity" remaining Alamo members. Simplicity. There is no simplicity in the gospel according to Alamo. He had to tell you how to do everything. Funny how I made it on my own outside the "church" and have stayed Christ-minded.

I pray for those of you who still believe this utter fraud.

You should be furious at Alamo. Not only for his crimes. But for also damaging the reputation of many. Including Christ Himself!

Because think of the heinous crimes Tony Alamo has committed. Then think of him comparing himself to Jesus Christ. It would make one suspicious of Christ Himself! Christ! the spotless Lamb of God!

That is the truth!



God bless!


Just some things to think about...



I was going to only post the Scripture but decided to add some of my thoughts with that.. Enjoy!! or don't enjoy.. whatever....! :-)

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Venezuela's Chavez says he wants an 'exorcism'

by Martin Barillas


President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela asked the newly installed Vatican diplomatic representative to undertake an “exorcism” of the nunciature, the office occupied by a predecessor who the Venezuelan described as a “sadist and rapist.”

Even so, Chavez welcomed papal nuncio Pietro Parolin during an official meeting with political leaders and diplomats on January 15 . Describing himself as a “Catholic”, Chavez said it was “very lamentable” that the Vatican embassy had sheltered Nixon Moreno – a 34-year-old political opponent who was given political asylum there from March 2007 until March 2009.

Moreno is charged with homicide and sexual assault in Venezuela and is currently taking refuge in Peru. Moreno has denied the charged and has said that he is the victim of political persecution.

Chavez said that his “’revolution’ is profoundly Christian,” and that is “Bolivarian revolution” is ready for “good relations” with the Catholic Church even while it will not stand pat in the face of criticism on the part of local church hierarchs. “Believe me, we are hoping to have good relations with the Vatican,” averred Chavez, “but we are not prepared to be quiet in the face of the intromission on the part of a group of bishops which has submitted to Venezuela bourgeois bastards.”

Chavez made these remarks in reference to the Catholic Church and the Vatican’s ambassador during a formal meeting with Venezuela’s political leaders and foreign ambassadors wherein he he gave an accounting of his government's activities in 2009. Among the other recent acts by Chavez was to devalue Venezuela’s currency and send soldiers to seize businesses engaged in price gouging.


Friday, January 15, 2010

Bush said he saw "God" when he looked in the eyes of the Pope...

He also said "God" told him to attack Iraq... Also, George Bush: 'God told me to end the tyranny in Iraq'

after reading this below read the article "A Catholic Wind in the White House" which appeared in the Washington Post.

"The Pope and God are the same, so he has all power in Heaven and earth." -
Pope Pius V, quoted in Barclay, Chapter XXVII, p. 218, "Cities Petrus Bertanous".

"...the Pope is as it were God on earth, sole sovereign of the faithful of Christ, chief of kings, having plenitude of power." -

Lucius Ferraris, in "Prompta Bibliotheca Canonica, Juridica, Moralis, Theologica, Ascetica, Polemica, Rubristica, Historica", Volume V, article on "Papa, Article II", titled "Concerning the extent of Papal dignity, authority, or dominion and infallibility", #1, 5, 13-15, 18, published in Petit-Montrouge (Paris) by J. P. Migne, 1858 edition.

These words are written in the Roman Canon Law 1685: "To believe that our Lord God the Pope has not the power to decree as he is decreed, is to be deemed heretical."

Writers on the Canon Law say, "The Pope and God are the same, so he has all power in heaven and earth."-
Barclay Cap. XXVII, p. 218. Cities Petrus Bertrandus, Pius V. - Cardinal Cusa supports his statement.

Pope Nicholas I declared: "the appellation of God had been confirmed by Constantine on the Pope, who, being God, cannot be judged by man." - Labb IX Dist.: 96 Can. 7, Satis evidentur, Decret Gratian Primer Para.

"The pope is of so great dignity and so exalted that he is not a mere man .... he is as it were God on earth, sole sovereign of the faithful of Christ, chief of kings, having plenitude of power." - Lucius Ferraris, «Prompta Bibliotheca», 1763, Volume VI, 'Papa II', pp.25-29

"The supreme teacher in the Church is the Roman Pontiff. Union of minds, therefore, requires... complete submission and obedience of will to the Church and to the Roman Pontiff, as to God Himself." - Leo VIII, «On the Chief Duties of Christians as Citizens», Encyclical letter, 1890

"Hence the Pope is crowned with a triple crown, as king of heaven and of earth and of the lower regions (infernorum)." - Lucius Ferraris, «Prompta Bibliotheca», 1763, Volume VI, 'Papa II', p.26)

"We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty" - Pope Leo XIII Encyclical Letter of June 20, 1894


"The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, he is Jesus Christ himself, hidden under the veil of flesh." - Catholic National July 1895

"The pope is the supreme judge of the law of the land... He is the vicegerent (replacement) of Christ, who is not only a Priest forever, but also King of kings and Lord of lords." - La Civilia Cattolica, March 18, 1871, quoted in Leonard Woosely Bacaon, An inside view of the Vatican Council (American Tract Society ed.), p.229


"The pope is the supreme judge of the law of the land . . . He is the vicegerent of Christ, and is not only a priest forever, but also King of kings and Lord of lords" - La Civilta Cattolica, March 18, 1871.

"All the faithful must believe that the Holy Apostolic See and the Roman Pontiff [the Pope] possesses the primacy over the whole world, and the Roman Pontiff is the successor of blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and is true vicar of Christ, and heed of the whole church, and father and teacher of all Christians; and that full power was given to him in blessed Peter to rule, feed, and govern the universal Church by Jesus Christ our Lord." -First Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ, "Eternal Pastor," - published in the fourth session of the Vatican Council, 1870, chap. 3, in Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom. vol. 2, p. 262.

"We define that the Holy Apostolic See (the Vatican) and the Roman Pontiff hold the primacy over the whole world." - A Decree of the Council of Trent, quoted in Philippe Labbe and Gabriel Cossart, "The Most Holy Councils," col. 1167.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Catholic Church welcomes "legitimate diversity", says Vatican official

Rome, Italy, Jan 13, 2010 / 07:32 pm (CNA).- The prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, explained that the Church welcomes all expressions of “legitimate diversity” in reference to ministries. He also called on priests to always fulfill their commitments and for those in irregular situations to bring them to a resolution.

In an interview with L’Osservatore Romano, the cardinal said the Catholic Church “is quick to receive in her bosom all legitimate diversity. She is not concerned with human categories that focus on right, left, progressive, conservative. Ours is not a sectarian Church. She is Catholic, one, holy, apostolic, and quick to embrace all, like a great mother.”

The Church “offers to all the possibility to take diverse paths in the common witness of the Gospel. If one thinks of the history of religious orders, of their different spiritualities, one sees they are all diverse but capable of carrying the riches of the charisms in the one Church of Christ. Naturally, they should all walk in unity. But unity does not mean uniformity,” the cardinal said.

Openness to Anglicans

Asked if it was in this spirit that the Pope issued the apostolic constitution, “Anglicanorum coetibus,” which lays out the manner in which Anglicans can return to full communion with the Church, Cardinal Hummes replied, “Yes, without a doubt. Becoming a part of our ecclesial community was their request. The Catholic Church has done nothing more than open her doors, as is her welcoming style.”

“To the Anglicans who have come among us,” he said, “she offers them the chance to live the faith, maintaining some of the characteristics of their rite, their spirituality, their liturgy, that is, of everything that makes it possible to live their faith without compromising the unity of ecclesial community. This means that they enter fully into ecclesial communion.”

Cardinal Hummes went on to refer to priests who are living in irregular situations, exhorting them to normalize their situations. “The Church does not abandon anyone, nobody is excluded from love and from fraternity. Not even those who have not yet decided to ask for a dispensation, which is always the best thing to do in certain cases.”

“Those who have de facto abandoned the ministry or who in some way are not in the necessary condition to continue ahead, are called to regularize their situations, as priests, before God, before the Church and before their own consciences.”

Cardinal Hummes said that “by officially requesting to be dispensed from their obligations, such individuals return to living correctly before God. In the end, all are always offered the possibility of recovering their state of grace.”

After being asked if “one can repent and come back,” the cardinal said, “Yes, keeping in mind that certain conditions and a true conversion are necessary for returning to the exercise of the ministry.”

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Ed Brown gets 37-year sentence




By Margot Sanger-Katz
for the Monitor

Ed Brown was sentenced to 37 years in federal prison yesterday for his role in orchestrating the nearly nine-month standoff at his Plainfield home that attracted national attention, drew hundreds of supporters and ended when undercover U.S. marshals arrested Brown and his wife, finding the house stuffed with guns and homemade explosive devices.

The judge, George Singal, chose a sentence lower than that recommended by the federal sentencing guidelines but long enough to mean that Brown, 67, will likely die in prison. His wife, Elaine Brown, 68, who was convicted of similar crimes, was sentenced last year to 35 years in prison. Four key supporters who lived with the Browns and helped bring them guns, food and bomb-making supplies, have already been sentenced to prison terms - one for 36 years.

"It's a sad case in many ways," Singal said, before announcing the sentence. "It is sad that Mr. Brown and his beliefs have caused others to be entrapped in his web."

Brown, a retired cockroach exterminator and onetime militia leader, was unrepentant to the end. Dressed in a khaki Strafford County jail uniform, Brown refused to stand for the judge, repeatedly interrupted the proceedings with complaints and mocking laughter, and used his final opportunity to address the court to deliver a long rant about the U.S. attorney's involvement in a worldwide conspiracy to undermine the Constitution and rob individuals of their legal rights.

"I didn't hurt those men - they destroyed us," Brown said. "The Freemasons, Zionists, Jesuits, Knights Templar, the Fraternal Order of Police, the Moose Lodge. Hey, they're everywhere."

When Singal began to explain his sentencing rationale, Brown asked to leave the courtroom, and he was not present when his sentence was announced.

Prosecutors had sought a stiffer sentence, in line with federal sentencing guidelines. Brown faced a 30-year mandatory minimum sentence for one charge alone, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Arnold Huftalen asked for a total term between 47½ years and 51 years 8 months for Brown, arguing that such a sentence would deter Brown's supporters and reflected the seriousness of Brown's actions, which he said could have resulted in the deaths of many U.S. marshals if Brown had been able to use his arsenal in a "violent confrontation" with law enforcement.

"It is not an overstatement to say that no more dangerous man has been sentenced in this courthouse," Huftalen said. "Nor is it an overstatement to say, in all likelihood, no more dangerous man is likely to be sentenced in this courthouse in the coming years."

Brown's lawyer, Michael Iacopino, requested the shortest sentence possible under the law - 30 years and 1 month - arguing that Brown's age and the fact that no one was harmed during the standoff mitigated against a longer term.

"It puts him right up there with people who have killed people," Iacopino said.

Singal chose a middle ground, saying that 37 years was enough to reflect the seriousness of Brown's crimes. He expressed disappointment that Brown had shown no remorse and had failed to acknowledge his negative influence on the lives of his wife and supporters.

"I have no doubt in my mind that Mr. Brown would have killed multiple marshals had they not dealt with him so effectively," Singal said.

The federal Bureau of Prisons will determine where Brown will serve his sentence. Elaine Brown is currently incarcerated at the Federal Medical Center Carswell, a prison in Fort Worth, Texas.

The standoff

Brown and his wife were first arrested in 2006 for tax evasion, after the pair refused to pay federal income taxes on more than $1.2 million that Elaine Brown had earned as a dentist. The couple represented themselves at trial in January 2007, arguing that they were not subject to federal taxes or the court's jurisdiction.

When they became convinced the trial was stacked against them, they retreated to their concrete, castle-like home, located on 110 acres and equipped with an observation tower, a years-long supply of dehydrated food and independent water and electric sources. From the start, Ed Brown promised a showdown, telling his friends that he expected "another Waco" and issuing repeated threats against federal agents, prosecutors and the judge in his tax case.

The standoff continued for months, with a rotating cast of anti-government allies visiting the house and helping the couple prepare for an armed confrontation. The Browns invited reporters for interviews and used blogs, internet radio shows and social networking websites to spread news about the standoff and request needed supplies - later delivered - including a German shepherd puppy, night vision goggles and roofing nails, "bigger better."

U.S. Marshals attempted to arrest Brown in June 2007, but their planned ruse to capture him at the foot of his driveway was foiled when a supporter stumbled upon hidden agents in the woods. It was not until October that the marshals tried again and succeeded in arresting both Browns without firing a single gunshot.

At the time of the Browns' arrest, federal agents found the house filled with guns, bombs and ammunition strategically placed around the property. Ed Brown's bedroom closet featured a rack filled with 22 operational pipe bombs, and dozens of other improvised explosive devices and rifles were scattered throughout the house, most near windows with sight lines around the property. Exploding rifle targets were found nailed to trees around the property line, and boxes of homemade guns were found, some partially assembled, in the basement. One veteran agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives described the stash as the largest he'd ever seen.

The trial

Last year, a jury found Brown guilty of two counts of conspiracy, using a destructive device in furtherance of a crime of violence, obstruction of justice, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and failure to appear for trial and sentencing hearings.

The sentencing hearing yesterday came after a proceeding to determine Brown's competency. Iacopino had not questioned his client's mental state before the trial, but he asked the court to order a mental health evaluation afterward, when Brown stopped communicating with him and began exhibiting behavior that his lawyer described as "delusional."

As they did during their tax trial, the Browns insisted on representing themselves for much of the period leading up to their trial, and they filed numerous pleadings - most dismissed as frivolous - questioning the jurisdiction of the court, the legitimacy of the charges and the constitutional basis of many of the judge's actions.

At times, they argued that their case could be resolved through bonds, though they were not charged with any financial crimes. At others, they asserted that the court was invalid because the U.S. flag inside the courtroom bore a gold fringe.

The forensic psychologist who examined Brown told the court that Brown's conduct was influenced by a narcissistic personality disorder, marked by "grandiosity, need for attention and lack of empathy." But he said Brown's unusual behavior was ultimately the product of ideology, not mental illness.

"The beliefs held by Mr. Brown are also held by a broad subculture," wrote Dr. Shawn Channell, who compared Brown's views with the "unrealistic" beliefs held by members of organized religions.

Iacopino told the judge that he planned to file a notice of appeal after the hearing but said he did not expect Brown to discuss the case with him or cooperate on any appeal.

U.S. Attorney John Kacavas said after the hearing that he was satisfied by the sentence and hoped it would send a strong message to likeminded extremists about the consequences of taking similar actions. But he acknowledged that even a life sentence might not dissuade those as ideologically committed as Brown.

"People who are fundamentalist in their beliefs are often not dissuaded by reason or long incarceration," he said.

Few such sympathizers were visible yesterday. Elaine Brown's sentencing was attended by both family members and anti-government supporters. Yesterday, only one longtime friend of the Browns', Marie Miller of Farmington, sat in the courtroom.

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